The Canadian Horticulturist. 389 



PEACH YELLOWS. 



f^ ULLETIN No. 17 of the United States Department of Agriculture 

 publishes much valuable information about peach yellows. In 

 regard to preventive measures the bulletin says : 



" With our present knowledge the cure of peach yellows appears 

 to be impossible. Many reported cures have been investigated and 

 found without merit. The claims made in behalf of some of these 

 were manifestly with intent to deceive ; in other cases they were 

 made in ignorance of the symptoms of the disease and of what constitutes a 

 cure, and generally by people not familiar with peach growing. Faithful trial 

 has been made of various fertilizers containing important plant foods. With 

 some of these, especially caustic lime and fertilizers containing nitrogen, it has 

 been possible to make diseased trees put on a greener and more vigorous 

 growth, sometimes mistaken for recovery, but all such trees have continued to 

 show symptoms of the disease and have soon relapsed into feeble growth. 



" So far, therefore, as we know, the only thing which can be done is to cut 

 out and destroy all trees as soon as any of the signs have made their appear- 

 ance. It is best to burn the diseased trees — roots and all, if possible. 



" In confirmation of this belief in axe and fire, we have the experience of 

 the Michigan peach growers. In some localities, notably at South Haven, they 

 have been fighting the disease in this way for the last twenty years, and though 

 the extermination of affected trees has not been complete, the results have been 

 of such a nature as to lead the growers to believe that this annual weeding out 

 has saved the orchards. 



"The results of the rooting-out process obtained in other States than 

 Michigan are less striking, either because the laws have not been enforced very, 

 generally, or because they have been in operation only a short time. 



" The greatest difficulty in the way of enforcing a law of this kind is the 

 desire on the part of owners to market fruit from affected trees. This opposi- 

 tion disappears as soon as it is made a misdemeanor to sell such fruit or buy it 

 for sale, and consequently a clause of this kind should form part of every " yel- 

 lows " law. Provision should also be made in such laws for the destruction of 

 diseased trees occurring in waste places and in villages and cities. It is important 

 also that records should be kept each year of the number of trees examined and 

 the number destroyed, so that in the future there may be a- sounder basis for 

 judgment as to the efficacy of the law." — New England Farmer. 



Little Ethel : " What is it these anarchists people talk about ?" Little 

 Johnny : " Why, they wants everything everybody else has got, an' they never 

 wash themselves." Little Ethel : " Oh, I see. They is little boys growed up." 

 — Washington Magazine. 



